Tornado Belly Rock Festival

Tornado Belly Rock Festival

Part Rock Festival, Part Live Movie Set! The final concert sequence in the new movie "We Had This Band" will be shot at the CASTLE THEATRE in Bloomington on July 7th as part of the Tornado Belly Rock Festival! It will feature a set from the band in the movie, Burn Daylight, and original music from Jonah Matranga, the lead singer of Far and Gratitude, who plays the role of Sean in We Had This Band.

Tickets sold will go to benefit the Pratt Music Foundation, a local organization in Bloomington that provides music scholarships to youth with financial need in the area and the Hammitt School at The Baby Fold.

Jonah Matranga

Jonah Matranga has spent the last decade in the music industry and has approached every step of the way by his own terms. After recording with FAR, NEW END ORIGINAL, ONELINEDRAWING and GRATITUDE, Jonah has taken it upon himself to release music for his diehard fans. His shows are super personal and very DIY complete with "name your own price" merchandice.

The Red Hot Valentines

After forming in a dorm room at an Illinois college, The Red Hot Valentines quickly took shape when founding members Jeff Johnson and Toby Kirk began collaborating on guitars and vocals. Rounding out the band, keyboardist Tyson Markley (The Amazing Kill-O-Watts, Fantastic Plastics) added analog synth leads along with rhythm section David Gerkin and Eric Humbert(EndeverafteR).

The Red Hot Valentines self-recorded and self-released their eponymous debut in January 2002 followed by a split EP with Retro Morning released in the spring of 2002. The band's audience in the Midwest continued to grow, thanks in part to overwhelming support from Champaign-Urbana's resurgent music community. Encouraged by their success at home, the Red Hots decided to take their show on the road. This led to tour stories involving such things as armadillo sightings, Texas high school football, and a visit to the Pearl Brewing Company (home of Pabst Blue Ribbon). Equally as important were the crowds of kids they rocked to from Sante Fe to New York City and everywhere else in between.

June 2002 saw the band signing with local label Polyvinyl Records. The band soon entered Pogo Studio to record their Calling Off Today EP with engineer Mark Rubel (Hum, Shiner). January 2003, they again returned to Pogo Studio to record Summer Fling, their debut Polyvinyl full-length which saw release in May 2003.

After active touring throughout 2003 and 2004, The Red Hot Valentines went their separate ways. This will be their first live appearance in several years.

Steven

Steven started in 1998 when friends, Chris and Grant, sought to try something different from the band they were busy with at the time. Coming from a punk rock background, they looked to turn things down and play acoustically, and discovered two part harmonies along the way. The next year they recorded a simple 7 song demo tape, which circulated wildly through central IL, and began to regularly perform. Over the next several years, they would play alongside the likes of: Rainer Maria, Low, Pedro The Lion, Alkaline Trio, Motion City Soundtrack, Radio 4, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Cursive, Ted Leo, Shannon Wright, and The Good Life. In early 2002, they became a 3 piece upon adding Neal on drums. Sporadic shows continued, opening for Duvall, Owen, Troubled Hubble, eE, etc. In late 2002, they recorded a 5 song demo and added Nick on bass. At this time the group no longer saw the need to stick to an acoustic formula, and started working in electric guitar and organ at times.

Shows became less frequent as members grew increasingly busy with living and schooling and working. In 2003, Steven recorded a demo in Chicago at Volume Studios with Stan Wood. A song from this session ended up on the compilation, "If It Plays...", released by Thinker Thought Records. "Perspectively" was sandwiched between cuts by The Velvet Teen, The Forecast, Planes Mistaken For Stars, William Elliot Whitmore, Scouts Honor, and more. 2004 saw the band play only a few shows, as members were spread throughout the midwest. 2005 brought about a rash of activity as the members were all reunited within a few hours of each other, and with the impending departure of Grant for Indonesia. Summertime delivered hours of practicing and writing, with the band sounding stronger than ever. Two recording sessions followed, one with Mark Rubel at Pogo in Champaign, IL, and one with Scott Adamson at Semaphore in Chicago, IL. During this time, the band continued to spread across the globe(Grant now lives with his family in China, and Neal in Seattle). They will be making a rare public appearance for this show.

WitchFeet

WitchFeet is an indie rock band from Chicago. The band is Indie Rock in the most classic sense of the meaning; loud, dissonant, and challenging to the listener, while still maintaining a focus on melody and plain good, catchy, well thought out songwriting.

WitchFeet's roots stem from a recording project by Justin and Ian that began sometime in 2009. Justin being an accomplished bass player and Ian a seasoned drummer, they each decided to take the six string position this time around. The tracks included on the self-titled single were the result of several different recording and writing sessions between Ian and Justin over much of 2010. Justin contributed guitar, vocals, and bass tracks to the recording, while Ian took care of the second guitar and drum duties.

When the two decided to make WitchFeet a full time band they went in search of the perfect rhythm section; Dave Chudy was found to fill the drummer position and Ryan Weddle to play bass guitar.

Witchfeet released "Art Garbage"(2012), on the band's own imprint No Support Records on vinyl, CD, and MP3 available directly from the band, and at traditional outlets such as iTunes and Amazon. The album was recorded and mixed by Ian G. and Justin M. at Studio Forty One in Chicago and was mastered by Mike Hagler (Wilco, Neko Case, Mekons) at Kingsize Sound Labs in Chicago. WitchFeet will be playing live dates throughout the midwest in winter 2012 / spring 2013 in support of the album release.

Members of WitchFeet have been (or presently are) involved in bands like All Eyes West, Green Skies Are Blue, Hysterics, Signsedso, Hinter... among others.

Burn Daylight

Burn Daylight is a new band formed leading up to filming of We Had This Band. Starting with a batch of songs singer/guitarist Andy Steadman had sitting on a shelf, the band began taking shape in winter of 2013 as Andy Wagner (guitar/vocals) and Jane Noseworthy (vocals) joined the project. Steadman recruited his old bandmate Murv Douglas (Lords of Acid, Powerman 5000) to play bass, and the band honed an honest, hard-driving rock sound.

After a successful show at KingKing in Los Angeles, the band traveled back to Illinois and brought on 17-year-old prodigy Griffin Johnson to play drums. Though the youngest member of the band, Johnson is a veteran live and studio player; he is the singer/guitarist for the band Exit2Enter, based out of the Chicago suburbs. Burn Daylight hopes to build on the momentum of shooting as they schedule shows including an upcoming appearance at the Whiskey A Go-Go upon their return to Los Angeles...and beyond.

All Age Groups-Main Floor Access / 21+ Access to Restricted Balcony
ATTN: The Castle Theatre will be a live movie set during the Festival. Buy purchasing a ticket, you are consenting to allow the filmmakers to film you for concert scenes to be used in the new Motion Picture "We Had This Band"